To say that the U.S. military in the Pacific War casualties of the most casualties of the battle, the first to promote the Okinawa Campaign!
Since the Battle of Midway, the United States has turned the tide of the Pacific War. At the same time, with the all-round operation of the US war machine, the US military, relying on its strong industrial strength and strong logistical support capabilities, basically suppressed Japan to fight.
Until the Battle of Iwo Jima!
Tadao Kuribayashi, the Japanese commander-in-chief of the Battle of Iwo Jima, summed up the example of the Japanese army losing 30,000 people in the three days of the anti-landing battle on Saipan, and believed that if the US army blocked the beach in the process of seizing the beach, he would suffer great losses. Therefore, he felt that the enemy should be lured deeper until the vanguard of the US army entered the land for 500 meters and then launched a counterattack, using hidden fortifications to harvest a large number of Us troops' heads.
Tadamichi Kuribayashi prescribed tactics such as close-range shooting, mobile defense of divided troops, and ambushes. At the same time, suicide charge was strictly prohibited, and every soldier was called upon to kill at least ten American troops.
It is conceivable that in the face of such a Japanese army, the LOSSes of the US army are very heavy. The Battle of Iwo Jima killed and wounded 23,786 Japanese and 28,686 American casualties!
Because of their experience in the Battle of Iwo Jima, the Japanese believed that they would certainly not be able to defeat the United States. Therefore, in the next battle, it is necessary to harvest enough American heads to make the United States retreat from difficulties and make the United States sit at the negotiating table with itself as soon as possible.
Therefore, in the Battle of Okinawa, the Japanese adopted the same tactics as Tadamichi Kuribayashi during the Battle of Iwo Jima, frantically harvesting American heads.
The battle brought the number of American casualties to a staggering 80,000 or so. Even Buckner, commander-in-chief of the U.S. 10th Army, was killed in the Battle of Okinawa and became the highest rank and officer of the U.S. Military to die in the Pacific Theater during World War II.
On the Japanese side, the Japanese army fought brutally, and a total of 100,000 soldiers were killed or captured. At the same time, 100,000 civilians on Okinawa have been killed, injured or forced to commit suicide.
Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to call this battle the bloodiest battle of the Pacific War.
The fierceness of the war shows that the victory or defeat of this war is crucial to both sides.
As a battle to seize the island, which side won the Battle of Okinawa, which side eventually occupied Okinawa. So, how important is Okinawa, causing the U.S. and Japanese armies to pay hundreds of thousands of casualties?
Okinawa, of course, has nothing to do with rope.
Okinawa is the gateway to southwest Japan and is vital to Japan.
Please look at the picture above, all the red circles are circled under the control of the US military. In order, the Aleutian Islands, Midway, the Marshall Islands, Saipan, and Iwo Jima. And the place where the green circle lives is Okinawa. It can be said that by taking Okinawa, Japan cut off Japan's ties with Taiwan Island, China's coast, and Southeast Asia. Nor can the Japanese get any supplies from Southeast Asia! And this is Japan's most important sea route of communication! Therefore, Okinawa is the last closed loop of the US military's strategic encirclement of the Japanese mainland, and it must be taken.
The US military attacked Okinawa, and there is another consideration.
Because they had suffered too many losses in the Battle of Iwo Jima, they realized that the Japanese Army still had a very strong fighting force. At this time, the Japanese army was distributed on large and small islands. Among them, there are 100,000 Japanese troops on okinawa, which is a good time to divide and encircle it and break through each one. After the occupation of Okinawa, it was impossible for the Japanese army in Southeast Asia to return to the Japanese mainland, because the way home was blocked by the US army! In this way, when attacking the Japanese mainland in the future, it will face much less defensive forces. The Japanese forces in Southeast Asia and the island of Taiwan faced isolation, which was also the purpose of the US military's island-hopping tactics.
Another very important reason is that since the US military carried out strategic bombing of Japan with B29, it has deeply felt that the B29's base, Saipan and Tinian Island, are too far from the Japanese mainland to carry too much ammunition, so the bombing effect is not good. Iwo Jima, which had just been laid, was too small to deploy B29 bombers in large numbers. Okinawa, which is larger than Iwo Jima and closer to the Japanese mainland than Saipan, must also take Okinawa for the purpose of better strategic bombing against Japan.
The U.S. military knew the importance of Okinawa, and Japan naturally knew it, so it also deployed heavy troops on the island.
Now let's look at the troop input of both the United States and Japan in this important battle!
The total number of troops invested by the US military has reached 400,000 people, more than 1,500 ships of various kinds, and more than 2,000 aircraft.
The Japanese army participated in the battle with 100,000 troops.
In this way, the Japanese army has almost no chance of victory, and it is impossible to pose any threat to the US army. Because the difference in troop strength is too great, and Japan has completely lost its sea and air supremacy.
But the end result was a heavy price for nearly 80,000 casualties, 763 aircraft losses, 36 sinking ships and 368 damaged. The Japanese suffered 100,000 casualties, although it was heavier than the US casualties, but the US army fought with several times the strength of the troops, firmly occupying the sea and air supremacy. Obviously, such a victory of the US military can only be described as a crushing victory!
So, why did the US military, which had an absolute overwhelming superiority in strength and logistics, pay such a heavy price to take Okinawa?
There are several reasons for this:
First, Japan's effective tactics!
Although the Japanese were inferior in strength, they operated on Okinawa for a long time and built strong fortifications based on the mountainous terrain. There are countless tunnels, bunkers and other fortifications. These fortifications made up for the lack of Japanese troops and equipment.
This was a relatively successful demonstration for them not long ago at the Battle of Iwo Jima. Because such tactics can indeed well offset the superiority of US military firepower and strength.
Relying on these fortifications, the Japanese army hid in the tunnels and did not move when the American army bombed. In this way, the US military does not know how effective its bombing is, and can only rely on feeling to estimate. The fact is that the losses of the Japanese troops hiding in the tunnels are minimal.
After several waves of bombing, the U.S. military landed. The Japanese army was very patient and never attacked, not exposing its strength. I have been waiting for a large number of US troops to land on the island! If it were not for the urging of the Japanese base camp, the Japanese commander Ushijima Man might have delayed the attack on the American army.
Ushijima man also did not attack all according to the orders of the base camp, but only sent out a part of the Japanese army.
The first wave of this part of the Japanese army caused 5,000 casualties to the American army!
In the time that followed, the Japanese relied on tunnels to avoid American bombing. And the excellent fire points hidden everywhere are frantically harvesting the heads sent by the US troops. At the same time, the Japanese troops hiding in the tunnels will also launch crazy attacks from time to time when the US military does not expect.
In this way, every step forward of the US military will pay huge casualties.
Second, the Japanese army guarding the island was stubborn, crazy in battle, and fearless of death.
Their goal is to kill and injure the U.S. military as much as possible. Later in the campaign, when the Japanese army was fully passively beaten, the US army still encountered many Japanese troops who were on fire and rushed out of the position, holding the US soldiers and dying together. What is even more frightening is that some Japanese troops surrendered fraudulently, approached the US troops, and suddenly detonated grenades, and died with the US troops. Similar shots are reflected in the movie "Hacksaw Ridge".
Of course, it does not mean that not being afraid of death can cause casualties to the US military. Rather, in such a crazy, bloodthirsty mental state, the usual confrontation has already manifested the bravery and abnormality, and in the face of adversity, morale has not been affected in the slightest.
On the contrary, the US military, in the face of such a near-crazy combat state of the Japanese army, many people were frightened. After the war, the U.S. troops involved in the Okinawa Campaign had more or less certain psychological problems. Because, the madness of the Japanese army is something they dare not imagine!
3. The suicide attack of the "Kamikaze Special Attack Team" of the Japanese air force.
The direction of attack of the Japanese "Kamikaze Special Attack Team" appeared as early as the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
Their goal was, one man, one machine, one bullet, for one enemy warship.
Throughout the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the suicide aircraft of the Japanese "Kamikaze Task Force" sank a total of 1 US destroyer, 2 battleships, 8 cruisers, 6 destroyers and 2 landing ships. Japan lost 700 suicide planes of the Kamikaze Task Force.
It should be said that this can indeed cause no small loss to the US military. But this is a manifestation of the Japanese army's end of the road.
In the Battle of Okinawa, the Japanese army carried out the suicide attack of the "Kamikaze Special Attack Team" to the extreme.
Among them, in the Kikusui-1 combat operation alone, the Japanese army dispatched 462 naval aircraft and 237 army aircraft, a total of 699 aircraft, including 355 suicide aircraft. Three U.S. destroyers, 1 tank landing ship, and 2 10,000-ton munitions ship were sunk, and 1 battleship, aircraft carrier, frigate, and mine-laying ship were damaged, and 8 destroyers were damaged, resulting in hundreds of U.S. casualties.
A total of 335 Japanese warplanes were shot down.
Although the U.S. military was prepared for the suicide attack of the Japanese army, it did not expect that the Japanese army would be crazy to such an extent.
It should be known that the establishment of an aviation division of the Japanese army is about 230-270 aircraft, and in one such combat operation, the strength of an aviation division or more than one division is sent to carry out a suicide mission.
You know, this is only the first Kikusui Battle. The Japanese army carried out a total of 10 such combat operations.
In the 10 Kikusui operations, the Japanese army dispatched a total of 7851 aircraft, including 2423 suicide planes and 4200 shots. However, the Japanese also caused huge losses to the American army, sinking 33 American warships and wounding more than 360.
The U.S. military did not record in detail the casualties of the 393 sunken and wounded warships, according to the first 5 sinks, 12 ships wounded hundreds of casualties, then the number of U.S. troops killed in the Japanese Kikusui operation, conservatively estimated at about a few thousand.
Even Lieutenant General Buckner of the Us Army and commander of the 10th Army Group ----- Buckner died under the shells of the Japanese Operation Kikusui. Buckner, on the other hand, is also the highest-ranking general of the U.S. military who died in World War II.
Interestingly, as Ushijima committed suicide by cutting his stomach, the supreme commander of both sides of the battle was killed! It was also unique in World War II.
All of the above is a great psychological deterrent to the US military!
Although the Japanese army was crazy to the extreme, it could not change the fate of their demise. It was just that the Japanese army was crazy and brutal to the point of unimaginable violence, and they forced the civilians on the island to participate in the war. In the end, civilians were forced to commit suicide. Even, directly slaughter the civilians on the island.
At the end of the campaign, the Japanese suffered heavy losses, sinking a total of 16 surface ships and 8 submarines, including the symbol of the Japanese Navy and the largest battleship in world history----- the battleship Yamato. A total of about 4,200 aircraft were shot down and 100,000 Japanese soldiers were killed or captured. At the same time, 100,000 civilians on Okinawa have been killed, injured or forced to commit suicide.
U.S. troops also suffered heavy losses. A total of 32 U.S. ships were sunk and 368 damaged, of which 13 aircraft carriers, 10 battleships, 5 cruisers and 67 destroyers were severely damaged, 763 carrier-based aircraft were lost, and nearly 80,000 casualties were inflicted.
Postwar. The U.S. Tenth Army was completely incapacitated and was transferred back to its home territory for recuperation, and a total of 30,000 American soldiers who fought in the Battle of Okinawa suffered from mental illness, and more than 14,000 American soldiers were discharged.
Based on the full text, Okinawa is a strategic point that the US military must take, so it must be fought, and it must be fought down, so it has invested huge troops to attack this island.
Okinawa was also vital to the Japanese army, so the Japanese army held on to it at all costs.
The overwhelming artillery fire of the Us army and the crazy counterattack of the Japanese army caused huge casualties on both sides. The entire Battle of Okinawa was also the bloodiest and most terrifying battle in the Pacific.